The night was black as ink, and rain poured down in torrents.
Ma Sanniang raised her head and looked out the window.
The rain had been especially frequent this year.
The Spring Beauty Courtyard should have been the liveliest place at night.
Yet now, it was utterly silent.
Ma Sanniang had sent away all the servants, girls, and assassins.
Over the years, Ma Sanniang had taken in many people with nowhere to call home.
Now, those people were homeless once more.
It had been on just such a rainy night that she met Xiahou Shang.
A Turkic general had ridden his horse, dragging her pregnant mother from east to west.
Flesh tore and churned, staining her mother's clothes red, staining the ground beneath her red.
And there was that Turkic general, laughing wildly in the rain.
Ma Sanniang had simply watched her mother scream in agony, watched her tear-streaked face, watched her blood-drenched body.
For some reason, the Turkic general had not killed her, seemingly wanting this little girl who had yet to experience the world to taste its cruelty.
Ma Sanniang had dragged her mother's body, long since a corpse, along the desolate streets.
Then she had met Xiahou Shang, riding a white horse.
"Which way did they go?"
After hearing what had happened to Ma Sanniang, Xiahou Shang had asked calmly.
When he returned, he held the Turkic general's head.
Ma Sanniang had said, "I owe you a life. Sooner or later, I'll repay you."
At the time, Xiahou Shang had smiled and thought little of it.
He simply had not expected that, all these years later, that frail little girl would truly keep her promise.
The rain was still falling, and the wind kept pouring in.
Two men in black emerged soundlessly from the darkness. "Sanniang, Uncle